


Whole But Broken

by CelestialThoughts (TheAlternativeRuler)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Hurt, I feel so bad for Pearl, and Steven, there was nothing happy about this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 22:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14628252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAlternativeRuler/pseuds/CelestialThoughts
Summary: There were so many times she wanted to tell him.





	Whole But Broken

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so that episode had me Shook(TM) and I had to write a quick something once I watched it. It's not so much the theory itself being confirmed, but what that means that has me so shocked and upset. This really does change everything, I'm rewatching episodes and seeing them in a whole new light with this information. Poor Pearl, I stand by my opinion that Rose (PD??? what do we call her now) is honestly kinda horrible. Glad she became Steven, he's definitely MUCH better than she was.

There were so many times she wanted to tell him.

When she discovered that Rose had kept secrets, even from her (how could she? After everything they’d been through? _My Pearl…_ ); when “Eyeball” told the story of Rose Quartz shattering Pink Diamond (his face at that moment shook her to her very core); when he and Connie discovered a journal with a depiction of Pink Diamond’s palanquin; when he sacrificed himself to Homeworld to save the others (she should have stopped him, there was no crime for him to confess); when she’d believed he was traumatized about his experience on Homeworld; when he confronted her directly, suspecting the truth that she couldn’t possibly say…

Steven deserved so much better.

The only way she could work around Rose’s orders, her Diamond’s orders, was to show him through her memories. She could say nothing, but the past could speak for her. Her mind’s eye saw through each version of herself that he met, the mess of her mistakes and weaknesses over thousands and thousands of years. When he saw Rose shift into her true form, that of an all-powerful Diamond, one who he’d been told had torn the Earth apart with her soldiers, one who he’d been told had shattered countless Crystal Gems, one who he’d been told his own mother had killed…He was so shaken, trembling beside his mother’s mobile throne, tears of shock and disbelief racing down his cheeks. Her heart ached to see him hurt, as it always did. Her Diamond, her leader, her love, her life, her _Rose_ , and her _Steven_ , hurting each other time and again through deception and betrayal. It was enough to cripple her.

His eyes looked so broken when she glanced back at him, tearing herself away from the memory. He met her eyes with the same horror and acceptance as he had when he’d realized that _she_ had shattered Pink Diamond. She passed along the phone, and just like that he appeared in front of her present physical form. 

Steven laid there, having been abruptly thrown to the ground, and he whispered, “I know.”

Pearl finally removed the hands trapping her mouth shut, hands placed there by her Diamond, hands that had kept her from being honest for ages. The Hibiscus flowers no longer clogged her airways, stealing her breath and voice so that she could never relay Rose’s lies.

Her vision became blurred by tears, and yet she’d never seen Steven so clearly.

“I wanted to tell you for so long,” her voice sounded wispy and pained even to her own ears. It was the closest she’d ever come to telling anyone the truth.

“Mom was Pink Diamond,” Steven said, casting his eyes to the ground. They were filled with all sorts of emotions: astonishment, anxiety, denial, rage, dread, fear, betrayal, hurt, pain, sadness, resignation, understanding...

She couldn’t even register Amethyst’s shocked exclamation, or the quiet but terrified form of Garnet beside her. 

All she saw was Steven. 

Steven and the Diamond he carried, not shattered, not shattered at all.


End file.
